How to Make Your Own Cannabis-Infused Cocktails

Cannabis isn’t approved by the FDA as a food additive – so even in states where adult recreational cannabis use is allowed, cannabis-infused beverages aren’t easy to find. Where cannabis use isn’t allowed, you won’t find weed-based drinks at all. However, there’s nothing stopping you from adding cannabis to your own cocktails. Weed and alcohol are both plenty of fun on their own, but the real magic happens when you combine the two. Along with the pleasurable effects of cannabis and alcohol, it can also be incredibly rewarding to experience the amazing ways in which the herbal flavor of cannabis can meld with the flavors of your favorite cocktail recipes.

If you’ve never tried making a cannabis-infused cocktail, you’ll be delighted to learn that adding weed to your favorite beverage is actually much easier than you might think – and alcohol is a perfect match for cannabis since cannabinoids are alcohol-soluble. You just need to do a little work first, and we’ll explain the process. When you’re done, you’ll be ready to add a dose of cannabis to whatever beverage you like. You’ll be able to curl up with a dab pen from a company like Rokin Vapes in one hand and a tasty cannabis-infused cocktail in the other hand, and you’ll finally be able to consume your favorite herb in two different ways simultaneously. What could be more fun than that?

Here’s how to make your own cannabis-infused cocktails.

What You Need

Before you can start infusing your cocktails with cannabis, you need to make a cannabis tincture. A tincture is a liquid containing the properties of an herb – and since you’ll be using alcohol to make the tincture, it’ll blend seamlessly with your cocktail without separating. Here’s what you need.

• Cannabis: about 2-6 grams depending on the desired strength.
• Alcohol: about 2 oz or a little extra since there will be some loss. Use the strongest alcoholic spirit that you can find, such as Everclear.
• Herb grinder: Since 2-6 grams of cannabis is a lot to grind in one sitting, you should use the highest-quality grinder that you can find.
• Baking sheet
• Small wide-mouth mason jar
• 2 oz amber or cobalt glass bottle with dropper
• Small funnel
• Cheesecloth
• Coffee Filter

How to Make a Cannabis Tincture for Cocktails

Once you’ve assembled all of the necessary items, it’s time to make your cannabis tincture. Before you can get started, though, you’ll need to put your cannabis through the decarboxylation process. Decarboxylation is essentially a fancy word for “heat activating” – it’s a necessary step in making any oral cannabis product because the THC in cannabis isn’t available for your body to use until it’s heated. When you vape or smoke cannabis, the THC is heat activated immediately before you inhale it. When you’re using cannabis orally, though, you’ll need to heat it in a different way. Here’s how to do it.

How to Decarboxylate Cannabis

When you begin making your cannabis tincture, you’ll want your alcohol to be extremely cold. Before you begin, pour the alcohol into the mason jar and put the mason jar in your freezer. To decarboxylate your cannabis, grind all of it and spread it on a baking sheet. Bake the cannabis in your oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes. You’ll know that the cannabis is ready because it’ll be extremely fragrant and will also start to turn brown. Remove the cannabis from the oven and allow it to cool completely before continuing.

How to Make the Cannabis Tincture

After decarboxylating the cannabis, you’re ready to begin making your tincture. Remove the mason jar from the freezer. Open it and add the cannabis. Close the jar tightly, give it a good shake and put it back into the freezer. Allowing a cannabis tincture to steep in your freezer speeds the extraction process because freezing bursts the plant’s cell walls. Allow the mixture to steep for a couple of days. During the steeping process, remove the jar from the freezer and shake it vigorously a few times a day.

Strain the mixture through a cheesecloth. Squeeze the cheesecloth firmly to remove as much of the alcohol as possible. At this point, the cannabis is completely spent; you can throw it away or add it to your compost heap. Pour the tincture through a coffee filter to remove any remaining plant material. Finally, use your funnel to pour the finished tincture into a 2-oz glass bottle. Your tincture is now complete. You can use it any time by placing a dropper of alcohol under your tongue and holding it there for several seconds before swallowing it – or you can add it to some tasty cannabis-infused cocktails.

Cannabis-Infused Cocktail Recipes

Now that you have your own cannabis tincture, you can add it to any cocktail – the only limit is your own creativity. Because cannabis can be quite strong when it’s used orally, we suggest starting with one dropper. Add a dropper of the tincture to any cocktail and wait several hours to gauge how you feel. If the effects aren’t strong enough for you, try two droppers next time. You can also increase the strength of your tincture by using more cannabis while keeping the volume of alcohol the same.

Without further ado, here are a few cocktail ideas that will work perfectly with your cannabis tincture.

Old Fashioned

The old fashioned is an incredibly delicious cocktail that really plays to whiskey’s strengths by sweetening it ever so slightly without covering its more complex flavor notes. To make an old fashioned, put a sugar cube in a glass along with a few drops of water and two dashes of angostura bitters. Use a muddler to crush and dissolve the sugar cube. Add a couple of large ice cubes and a jigger of whiskey. Stir the cocktail and garnish it with a cherry and a twist of orange or lemon.

Gimlet

You can make a gimlet in two different ways – with Rose’s lime juice or with freshly squeezed lime juice. If you’re using Rose’s lime juice, simply pour a jigger of gin and a half jigger of Rose’s lime juice into an ice-filled glass and stir. If you’re using fresh-squeezed lime juice, muddle a sugar cube in a glass with a half jigger of lime juice before adding the gin and ice. Lime juice and gin are absolutely perfect together, and you’ll find that making a gimlet is one of the most perfect ways to enjoy a top-quality gin.

Sidecar

If you like distilled wines, you’ll find that the sidecar is a classic cocktail that allows you to enjoy the rich flavor of brandy in an entirely new way. Pour a jigger of brandy or cognac, a half jigger of Cointreau and a squeeze of lemon juice into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake the cocktail and pour it into a glass. Optionally, you can rim the glass with sugar if you’d like the cocktail to be a little sweeter.

DISCLAIMER

Marijuana is not legal in all areas. BeerConnoisseur.com encourages you to check your local, regional and national laws before purchasing marijuana in person or online. BeerConnoisseur.com holds no liability of any kind, including financial, for any person(s) using marijuana resulting from information or web links contained on this website.